Art in the Park returns to Elm Park

WORCESTER — It was art installation time at the "gallery" on Tuesday. Which meant cranes, pickup trucks, cherry pickers.

Put another way, Elm Park is about to make an exhibition of itself again.

The last Art in the Park was two years ago, when Elm Park underwent its fourth annual transformation into an outdoor art gallery. Last March, Art in the Park Worcester committee volunteers said that the outdoor art exhibit would switch from an annual to a biennial schedule.

True to their word, Art in the Park, Worcester 2013 will open Saturday with more than 20 artworks by 18 artists on view throughout Elm Park for nearly three months, through Oct. 13. An opening reception is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. July 27 at the park. The rain date is July 28.

Rain was one of the operative words Tuesday, as many of the artists arrived at Elm Park amid downpours to install their creations with help that included people from the City of Worcester Parks, Recreation and Cemetery Division, R.H. White Construction, and Arts in the Park Worcester. Other operative words included "lower ... lower ... "

"The eagle has landed," joked James Kitchen after his 4,500-pound sculpture "Day's End" touched down after being hoisted up and out of his truck by a crane and placed safely on Elm Park earth. The nearly 20-foot-tall structure created out of recycled steel looks like railroad spikes formed together to resemble a human form leaning forward after a long day of work.

"All my sculptures are about the human condition," said Kitchen, who lives in Chesterfield, near Northampton.

This will be the fourth time Kitchen has had his work seen at Art in the Park. "I love this place. I'm thrilled to be here," he said.

Courtesy of a cherry picker, Grafton artist Philip Marshall had just hung his creation, "Fruit of Fancy," from a branch on a tree. The work looks like a basket of red fruit, but the closer people look, the more they might suspect that the piece is all steel. "The real thing is I just hope it makes people smile," said Marshall, who is a first-time Art in the Park artist.

"Public art should be in the conversation all the time," said David Boyajian of New Fairfield, Conn., whose 500-pound "Dancing Milkweed" made of fabricated steel twists and seemingly flowers to life in what Boyajian called "a riff on nature."

"I think it's a great idea whenever you can bring sculpture into a public sphere. It does a lot for the community and becomes the engaging element when people walk through," he said.

When Art in the Park Worcester announced last year that it was becoming a biennial exhibition, there may have been some in the community who wondered if it would ever be seen again. After the 2011 exhibition there was a shortfall of about $2,400, organizers said.

Gloria D. Hall, co-founder and director of the Art in the Park Worcester committee, said the announcement "was made with the expectation that it would happen again. There's always the possibility it would not. Things change. But we believed that and started to work to make it happen. The shortfall was maybe $2,400 — that pales in comparison to shortfalls for many nonprofits. We were able to move forward. I would say we have a very assertive approach to fundraising, and it has definitely paid off."

If Art in the Park is out of the woods, Hall was keen to emphasize that fundraising is an ongoing need. "Don't make it sound that we can't do with more fundraising. We can always use contributions," she said.

The exhibit is presented in partnership with Worcester's Parks department and ArtsWorcester, along with the fiscal sponsorship of the Arts and Business Council Inc. The program is also supported in part by a grant from the Worcester Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Greater Worcester Community Foundation. Other sponsors include WCCA-TV.

After a call for applications, a panel of judges including Boston sculptor Murray Dewart selected 18 artists from across New England, and as far away as Colorado. "The quality of the submissions was excellent, and there were many gifted and inventive works," said Dewart. "Public sculpture has the chance to surprise the viewer and energize the space. Works in trees, works on water. Novel approaches to form, new uses of old materials. Worcester's Art in the Park program is becoming a draw for talent from across New England and is an important cultural event."

Denis J. Folz of Danbury, Conn., was another artist with a four-wheeler pickup truck at Elm Park on Tuesday. He had put into place his 325-pound steel sculpture "Cocoon 1." Steel rods seem to be protecting an inner core. "It's basically about how the cocoon protects the butterfly," he said. Like Kitchen and Boyajian, he has hauled huge sculptures long distances. "We kind of have to design them to the size of the truck," he said.

Art the Park is closer to home for Worcester artist Sarah Williams, and promises to be her cup of tea — or, rather, coffee.

"I would describe the work as a large-scale diner-style ceramic coffee mug — the entire piece is made out of clay and I built it inside of a kiln at Massachusetts College of Art and Design," Williams said of the work she is exhibiting. "I made it specifically for the Art in the Park exhibition. I wanted to create something that celebrated Worcester's history of diner manufacturing and diner culture ... It has a goofy presence that makes you want to hang out in it. There is a crawl space in the side of the mug and a small seat inside."

Not every artist moved in Tuesday. "Homage to the Oak" will run Aug. 11-15 and feature artist Anne Kamilla Alexandra, who will be in the park daily from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3:30 p.m. carving "Acorn Grande."

Hall said that since Art in the Park is free and in a public space, it is impossible to say how many people the exhibition draws. "There are thousands of people that just go onto the park," she said. However, "It is seen by a wide variety of people."

Meanwhile, "I really like to hear stories."

A woman told Hall that she and her father have both gone on their respective birthdays to Art in the Park and taken photographs of each other by the artworks.

Hall once came across a blog by a hospital executive in Boston that had images from Art in the Park. Hall said she emailed him and asked if he lived in the Worcester area. He replied no, but said he was in Worcester one day and driving along Park Avenue when he noticed the exhibition and stopped and looked. "He thought it was neat."